Violin players regularly use a shoulder rest to support the violin on the shoulder of the user during use of the violin. Shoulder rests are typically separate items which clamp to the rim of the violin. Ideally, contact with the body of the instrument should be minimised in order to not affect the sound.
While traditionalists may consider that a violin should be played without a shoulder rest, the technique of doing so is difficult and takes time and motivation to learn. Most violinists prefer to use a shoulder rest, even some of the great violinists.
One problem with using a shoulder rest is how to securely fix it to the violin whilst enabling comfort for the user and without having a detrimental effect on the sound produced by the violin. It generally understood that applying a pressure to the surfaces of the violin (e.g. by a clamping mechanism), especially the front but also the back surface, has a detrimental effect on the sound of the violin. The original shoulder rests involved a pad of some description arranged between the violinist's shoulder and the instrument, but this tends to have a muffling effect on the sound. This has a further problem that it may move during the performance. There have been numerous efforts to create and improve upon the violin shoulder rest. Several advantages that have been sought include the method of fixing (to avoid affecting the sound too seriously), adjustability of the shoulder rest so that it can be used according to the preference of the violinist, comfort, portability and rapid means for fixing and releasing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,573 describes a shoulder pad for a violin having a foam pad with a pair of parallel longitudinal channels therethrough which passes an inelastic filament loop. One end of the filament loop is fitted around the end button on the instrument whilst an elastic band encircles the opposite end of the filament loop and is hooked over the lower bout corner on the bass-bar side of the instrument. This arrangement is said to minimize slippage of the pad on the back of the instrument.
GB-A-2426117 discloses a shoulder rest for a violin which consists of a shoulder pad with a single support arm mounted onto the violin via a mounting plate which is adapted to be clamped to the body of the instrument. Typically, the mounting plate is fixed to the violin by incorporating the mounting plate into the back side of the clamp by which a chin rest is held to the instrument. The shoulder rest described in GB-A-2426117 may be fitted to the violin by inserting the support arm into a socket in the mounting plate adapted to receive it. A disadvantage of this arrangement is that there is a significant amount of stress placed upon the support arm and on the mounting plate when in use, such that it is necessary to utilize heavier and more expensive materials in its manufacture and furthermore may be detrimental to the effectiveness and security of the chin rest clamp. In addition, the range of adjustment of the shoulder rest to suit the user is limited.
US-A-2006/0207405 describes a secure instrument support for a violin, having a shoulder rest and a chest support which may be separately and adjustably attached to a base, which is mounted on the back side of the instrument via three mounting members configured to engage the outside edges of the instrument at three different locations (e.g. at the lower side, the bottom and the waist regions of the instrument). According to the disclosure, this configuration allows the base to be securely fitted at the desired location and whereupon the shoulder rest and chest support may be fitted and adjusted, as may the orientation and angle of the base, according to the users preferred angle of holding the instrument and individual comfort whilst preventing slippage of the shoulder rest during performance. A disadvantage of this configuration is that it requires additional time to fit and adjust the device for the comfort of the individual user is not immediately removable and although significantly more secure may not cure the problem of disengagement of a shoulder rest during performance.
The now dominant primary design in violin shoulder rests is based upon the disclosure in U.S. Pat. No. 3,631,754 of a longitudinal support member mounted to the instrument via two adjustable clamping elements which engage with the sides of the instrument, a design that Kun adapted from earlier dual clamping longitudinal supports such as that of Ungh (U.S. Pat. No. 2,575,569) that were restrictive in their positioning and suitable for a single size of instrument.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,631,754 describes a shoulder rest for a violin having a longitudinal rest member, which is deformable to allow adjustment of its shape for the user's comfort, which has at the ends thereof two fork-shaped jaws for engagement with the side walls of the instrument. The position of the jaws is adjustable with regard to the rest member in upright and longitudinal directions to enable it to fit to different sizes of instrument and to be fitted at different points of the instrument to enable proper positioning. The jaws are fixed to the longitudinal rest member via terminal members which may be screwed to the longitudinal rest member at several different locations allowing adjustment of the length. The jaws are connected to the terminal members via rivets which allow the adjustment of tilt of the longitudinal rest member across its longitudinal axis.
Most of the improvements in this design of shoulder rest have focused on the adjustability of the rest. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,031,163 discloses a longitudinal rest member having two terminal clamping members having improved adjustability by way of fixing a foot member of each clamping member to the elongated base of the shoulder rest by a thumbscrew fitted through one of two or more openings in the foot member and received by one of two or more nuts embedded in the elongated base which respective openings and nuts are separated by different distances. By this means, at least four different clamping distances may be achieved with a minimum number of nuts and openings. In US-A-2005/0016355 there is described a steplessly adjustable shoulder rest. Each of two binding elements are connected to the end walls of two adjusting slides, which each have a horizontal main body provided with a long slot adapted to flatly and slidably locate in one of two oppositely spaced recesses formed in the elongated wooden base of the shoulder rest. At a predetermined position within each recess is provided a guiding and locking bolt which projects through the long slot of respective adjusting slide. The adjustable slides are held in place by two nuts fixed to the locking bolt and may be adjusted by loosening said nut and sliding the adjustable slides along the recess in the elongated base to the desired position.
One of the main problems associated with shoulder rests, including the dominant Kun design, has been that of slippage or disengagement of the rest during playing. When adjusted for a particular violinist's preference, there remains the risk during performance that the shoulder rest will slip into a different position or will fall off altogether. A further problem arises in traditional designs in that due to the propensity for slippage or disengagement, the gripping elements or feet are typically so large that they are thereby putting pressure on the main body of the violin backplate during use, which is detrimental to the vibration and thus sound performance of the instrument.